Every trail in Cuyamaca Rancho State Park offers beauty and worthy exploration, while every trail there also shows the devastation that still exists nearly a decade after the Cedar fire of 2003.

Combine part of the South Boundary Fire Road and the Blue Ribbon Trail to survey the ecological status of this historic land, where you’ll also enjoy some long views.

Park in the East Mesa parking area off state Route 79 and cross the highway to begin on the South Boundary Fire Road. This wide dirt road, open to hikers, equestrians and mountain bikers (dogs are not allowed on state park trails), winds uphill from the highway a few hundred feet where you’ll have fine views over the East Mesa of the state park. Look for Oakzanita Peak on that eastern horizon; this rocky point stands at 5,054 feet in elevation.

About halfway along the South Boundary Fire Road segment of this hike, the road makes a deep U-turn. As soon as you round the bend, you’ll encounter the big western views afforded on this road. You can see a few layers of distant peaks to the west and a high-mountain meadow to the south, all past a deep green valley. On the other side of the ridge to the west is the Sweetwater River, which runs through the state park.

To the north and northeast are Cuyamaca and Stonewall peaks.

After 1.3 miles on the South Boundary Fire Road, the Blue Ribbon Trail (hikers and equestrians only) intersects on your left and heads down into that valley.

Most of this southern area of the park remains chaparral, and its shrubs are clearly making a comeback. Lots of manzanita, chamise, ceanothus, sugar bush and scrub oak seem to be thriving on the Blue Ribbon Trail. Look for the spring blooms of manzanita, chamise and ceanothus here in March and April.

Manzanita, chamise and scrub oak all resprout from their bases after a fire, and you’ll see that evidence on this trail.

But most striking is the comeback of the coast live oaks. They are nowhere near what they once were here in Cuyamaca, but the burned trunks have clearly responded with new growth.

Virtually all the pines and other conifers throughout Cuyamaca, however, were killed by the 2003 conflagration that destroyed 95 percent of the 25,000-acre state park, and they don’t resprout.

In 2008, American Forests partnered with California State Parks, Cal Fire and Conoco-Phillips to reforest Cuyamaca.

In that first year, 9,000 pine seedlings — mostly Jeffrey pines — were planted across 25 acres of the park, then 78,000 more seedlings in 2009 and 2010 over 331 acres. Plans still call for more planting over 2,500 acres over the next decade.

In spring 2010, the Cuyamaca Rancho State Park Reforestation Project became the first public land project to be listed in the Climate Action Reserve for offsetting carbon.

But local environmentalists and scientists disagree that part of that reforestation should involve the grinding, mastication and burning of acres of ceanothus to plant those trees.